Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped another four-tenths of a point to 8.8 percent in July, the highest rate in 26 years as employers kept a tight rein on payrolls.
Department analysts believe the state labor force expanded by 4,600 because laid off workers ran out of severance pay and additional household members began looking for jobs to offset reduced hours and pay cuts for the primary wage earner. But only 1,400 of those new workers found jobs last month, swelling the ranks of the unemployed to a record 65,900. Over $45 million in unemployment benefits were paid to jobless workers during July, four times the amount paid in July 2008.
A year ago, the unemployment rate was 5 percent, and 37,400 people were out of work. That year-over-year increase in the number of jobless workers is the largest on record.
Idaho’s record unemployment rate was 9.4 percent from October 1982 through February 1983.
Idaho's economy shed another 6,400 nonfarm jobs from June, dropping total nonfarm jobs 7 percent below July 2008 and lower than any July since 2004. The year-over-year decline is a percentage point and a half deeper than the year-over-year job loss during the worst period of the 1980s recessions. More than 46,000 jobs have been lost in the last year – a 20 percent reduction in the smaller but typically higher-paying goods producing sector and a 4 percent decline in the substantially larger service sector.
The job loss from June followed seasonal patterns, reflecting the end of the regular school year and only modest private sector job increases in trade, trucking, health care, financial services and hotels even though the state’s 50,000 employers hired just 13,500 new workers. That was the smallest July number since employers began reporting in 1998.
Nationally the unemployment rate declined a tenth to 9.4 percent, reducing the gap between the state and nation to its lowest level since April 2003. The continued increase in Idaho’s rate as the national rate appears to be stabilizing underscored the influence construction had on the state’s expansion and the negative economic impact once the bubble burst.
Since April, Idaho’s unemployment rate has jumped 1.9 percentage points. Employment declined 11,000 while unemployment rose 13,300 as more and more new entrants into the labor market failed to find jobs.
Unemployment rates were up in all 44 counties from a year earlier, and only six counties experienced reductions in their rates from June. That compared to 10 counties seeing a rate decline from May to June. A dozen counties had double digit rates, up from seven in June and none a year ago. The highest rate was 12.7 percent in the Panhandle’s Shoshone County.
Just three counties had rates under 5 percent, the lowest at 4.5 percent in Custer County. A year ago nine counties’ rates were under 4 percent. Teton County posted the lowest rate in July 2008 at 2.1 percent.
Unemployment in the Boise metropolitan area, which has nearly 40 percent of Idaho’s labor force, dropped a notch from 10.2 percent to 10.1 percent. Ada County, the biggest of the five metro counties, matched that with a tenth of a point decline to 9.4 percent while Canyon County, the second most populous in the state, dropped four tenths to 11.9 percent.
Seasonally Adjusted Forecast Data
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7/09
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6/09
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7/08
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|
|
|
|
|
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Civilian Labor Force
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752,600
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|
755,500
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|
Unemployment
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65,900
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|
37,400
|
|
% Labor Force Unemployed
|
8.8
|
8.4
|
5.0
|
|
Total Employment
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686,700
|
685,200
|
718,100
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|
|
|
|
|
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Unadjusted Forecast Data
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Civilian Labor Force
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762,300
|
|
764,400
|
|
Unemployment
|
62,700
|
|
34,700
|
|
% Labor Force Unemployed
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8.2
|
|
4.5
|
|
Total Employment
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699,600
|
|
729,700
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